San Michele Arcangelo is a Romanesque-style,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

located in the center of

Sermoneta Sermoneta is a hill town and ''comune'' in the province of Latina (Lazio), central Italy. It is a walled hill town, with a 13th-century Romanesque church, the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta (sometimes erroneously called a cathedral) ...

, region of

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, Italy.

History and description

The stone church was putatively built in the 11th century atop the ruins of an ancient pagan temple. The facade is made of non-hewn, irregular stones and sports awkward elements such as a portico entering from the alley at a right angle. The nave is subdivided with two aisles. The church crypt has Romanesque-era frescoes by unknown authors. The organ is from the 18th century and the baptistry from 1603. The church was once affiliated with a confraternity of

flagellants Flagellants are practitioners of a form of mortification of the flesh by whipping their skin with various instruments of penance. Many Christian confraternities of penitents have flagellants, who beat themselves, both in the privacy of their dw ...

known as the Battenti.Comune of Sermoneta
short entry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michele Arcangelo Sermoneta Romanesque architecture in Lazio 11th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy